Chapter Seven'Liam and Trish marry'

When the wedding day of Liam and Trish came around, the bride was naturally given away by her dear father and Ned was delighted to act as Liam's best man. There was no disagreement about the choice of carriage to convey the bride from her home in Tipperary to the church in Portlaw. Both bride and groom would have had no other means of transport used for the occasion.

A beautiful white wedding carriage with red leather upholstery had been rented for the day and it was pulled by none other than a marvellously-groomed and ribboned Cob called Lafferty's Lady. Only this horse, which had been the initial subject of the couple's introduction, was considered appropriate to take the bride and her father to the church in Portlaw. It seemed only fitting that one Lafferty's Lady would convey the other Lafferty's Lady to the church.

The marriage day went off well, although if truth be known, both bride and groom were consciously aware of absent guests that couldn't be there like Trish's deceased mother, Liam's mother and his Great Aunt Hetti.

During the best man's speech, Ned had a few tears in his eyes as he praised the young groom who had come into his life as an apprentice some six years earlier and who had reportedly changed it for the better. Then, when the day couldn't seem to get any better, both Ned and Mr Doolie made it complete by each offering the bride and groom respectfully, full partnerships in their businesses. Trish was to become a full partner in her father's blacksmith's business and Liam would become Ned's partner in their coal delivery business.

The couple honeymooned in Donegal for a full ten days and even though both were virgins, so to speak, their first night together remained one of such pleasurable nature that they would never forget it. The couple's married life together began with the expression of much mirth. It was this sense of always been able to laugh at life together which would turn out to be the lasting cement of their lifelong relationship that would neither crumble to contrary touch nor malicious mouth.

Before they went down to breakfast on the first morning in their honeymoon hotel, both laughingly decided to have a joint shower in the bathroom immediately across the landing. Showers were so rare to find in any but the richest of Irish households at the time, and only the best hotels had them on offer in addition to a bath for their guests. With the communal shower and bathroom being immediately across from their bedroom, both newly weds dashed across the narrow landing as naked as the day they were born, and into the bathroom where they jointly showered in wicked abandonment.

After their frolickng in the bathroom they discovered only one towel there, not even large enough to barely cover the modesty of one of them, let alone two. With only one small towel between them, they both covered the front of their bottom parts and walked back across the landing to the bridal suite.

As the couple crossed the landing Liam ran ahead naked, and as he tried to enter the bedroom suite, he discovered that they'd inadvertently locked themselves out of their bedroom. As he ran back to Trish to tell her their predicament and share her towel once more whilst they talked about what to do, he saw his worst nightmare appearing. Walking towards them, like a torpedo ready to shatter and sink their good reputations were two middle-aged and middle-classed ladies. Trish looked the other way for a possible route of escape, but saw an elderly couple chatting away merrily approaching from the opposite direction. With insufficient towel to cover both top and bottom of all their modesty parts, or both front and rear lower parts, Liam behaved like the perfect Irish gentleman he was.

"What shall we say... what shall we do?" his embarrassed bride asked her husband as she started to realise which part of her anatomy would be left exposed.

As the two middle-aged women approached near enough to see them face to face, Liam pulled away that part of the small towel that covered his manhood and draped the full towel over the shoulders of his young blushing bride. Although barely adequate to fully cover the bride's modesty, his thoughtfulness nevertheless protected her decency as much as he could.

As Liam proudly stood there in his birthday suit with not a thing but his pair of hands to act as a fig leaf, Trish whose face blushed with embarrassment also hid behind her hands in an act to conceal her shame. The two middle-aged women did what any Irish woman of their good standing and breeding would have done in their circumstances and simply said, "Good morning" in a polite voice and walked on by without looking back or passing comment.

The elderly couple who were fast approaching from their rear end however, were less understanding. "Just look at that hussy flaunt herself, Mildred! These wild young ones today are apparently considered old enough to marry, but not decent enough to keep their monkey business to themselves and behind closed doors," one ofthe ladies exclaimed in pretend fright.

The hotel receptionist was eventually made aware of their plight and the newly-married couple were re-admitted to the wedding suite where, after a good laugh, they resumed a bit of heavy petting before getting up the nerve to enter a full hotel breakfast room. While this incident was deeply embarrassing for the newly married couple, it provided entertaining conversation for many of the hotel guests sharing the breakfast room that morning. In the years to follow, it would also remain as a fond memory for Trish and Liam of those early wild years of marriage.

Later that morning when the honeymoon couple entered the dining room for breakfast, Trish blushed profusely; being aware by now that all of the hotel residents would undoubtedly have learned about the landing streaker and his blushing bride who'd been locked out of the bridal suite with nothing but a towel to share between them. Instead of gossiping in whispers from their respective tables, the present company surprised Liam and Trish by simply clapping the newly married couple to their seats as they entered the dining room. However, if Trish and Liam actually believed that they had escaped unscathed from their hotel streaking, alas, they were to be sadly mistaken. They were experiencing none other than a gentleman's truce to hostilities; a mere temporary abandonment of fisticuffs until the marriage breakfast had been eaten and the town gossip could begin in earnest!

The couple were quickly to learn that even in Ireland, this most Catholic of countries, it would seem that considerable leeway is still extended to all newly weds during their first 24 hours of marriage. After that leeway corridor has passed by however, the gloves come off and everything and everyone is fair game!

So while all Irish custom would be strictly observed initially, there would be nothing permanent in the truce. Peace and civility would be meticulously observed until after the wedding breakfast had been digested, but by the time that evening dinner was being served in all other Donegal establishments, news of the abandonment of all marital modesty by today's newly weds would have been spread to all and sundry by the hotel guests and staff where Liam and Trish stayed.

As they entered the dining hall to the applause of other guests, Trish and Liam were asked if they objected to another person sitting at their breakfast table as the hotel was filled to the brim. While such a request would have been considered highly irregular in another country, especially if made to a couple having their wedding breakfast, in the Emerald Isle, very few busy people with a living to earn can afford to stand on ceremony. To tell the truth, Liam and Trish didn't mind in the slightest. On the contrary, they were of the view that having an additional guest at their table might prevent all eyes being solely focused on themselves.

Their table guest was a Donegal horse breeder of Liam's age, called Farley Mulldew. Farley and Liam hit it off immediately like a house on fire. It was as if they were long lost brothers. Farley said that his guardians had also wanted him to go to university and better himself, but his love of horses had prevailed in the end. He told Liam and Trish that after both guardians of his had been tragically killed in a freak storm three years earlier when a tree had fallen on their motor car, he felt free to pursue the love of his life; horses. His grandparents, who'd adopted him as an infant and had given him their name, were wealthy enough to leave him an inheritance large enough to set up his own breeding stables in Donegal and he was in the process of establishing a fine line of horse there. Farley's love and knowledge of horses instantly attracted him to Trish.

Farley told the newly weds that like Liam, his unmarried blood mother had died at birth and that he'd never known his father. He told them that his grandparents adopted and reared him as their own, just as Liam's Great Aunt Hetti had done. His orphaned status and independence of mind complimented the requirements that Liam needed in a close friend and cemented the bond between them before the week was out. As for Trish, the immediate bond with Farley was no less than that of Liam's had proved to be.

During the few days that Liam and Trish had to get to know Farley better, it was obvious that they would remain lifelong friends. They promised to remain in touch in the future as they shared so many similar interests.

While in Donegal, Liam and Trish had a great week's honeymoon. Liam had always found railway engines mesmerising and took the opportunity to check out stock in Donegal. Liam had always been fascinated by any conveyance of coal and he took his bride to look at as many engines as he could find. While Trish was into horses more than old engines, being trained as a blacksmith had given her a natural respect for the fashioning of any steel object whether it be placed on a row of sleepers or on a horse's hoof.

The newly-married couple returned from honeymoon and set up their home together in Kilbunny, in the cottage Liam had inherited from his Great Aunt Hetti. Each retained their own jobs that they'd previously held; the only difference being that both were now partners in marriage and enjoyed joint partnership with their father and substitute father.

In pride of place on the wall was hung the couple's honeymoon present that Farley had kindly bought each of them and which they received by post two weeks after their return from honeymoon. He had bought Liam a beautifully-framed photograph of the first rail car in Donegal. For Trish, Farley had framed a picture of 'Dancing Lady', a beautiful Shire horse that he was having studded by 'Mountain Glory', who was reportedly the finest Shire horse ever to come out of Connemara.

Farley had always been interested in horses that had been bred for their capacity to perform hard work and not particularly jump fences or race on the flat for the mere satisfaction and glory of their owners. It was for this reason that he chose to breed Shires above all other horses. Farley believed the Shire horse to be a breed closest to man's heart; a form of draught horse to be found among the tallest and strongest of all horses there are. They possess an enormous capacity for weight pulling and throughout the breed's history, they have proved most popular with the brewer, farmer, forester, coal merchant and even rag and bone man. Indeed, no annual gala could possibly be held without the presence of Shires pulling this kind of contraption or that around the show ground.

Trish had the farthest to travel to work daily and during the summer months of their first year of marriage, she would cycle the road from Kilbunny to the blacksmith's forge in Tipperary each morning; a distance of approximately 14 miles. With some modest modification to their weekly coal round by Ned and Liam, her husband would collect her from the blacksmith's forge in Tipperary at the end of their day's work. Whereas the start of the day would witness her bicycle being pedalled to Tipperary, the end of each day would see the bicycle being placed on the back of the coal cart with Trish sat up front alongside her husband as they travelled back home to Kilbunny.

Ned facilitated these changes in the daily arrangements by ending his day at three o'clock and making his own way back to his home on the Waterford Road; perhaps calling for a few bottles of porter on the way. Ned had for some time now, managed to control his alcoholic consumption and Liam could hardly remember the last occasion when he'd seen Ned the worse for drink.

These work arrangements lasted until March, 1965 when Trish announced the news that she was expecting a baby. Liam was over the moon, along with her father and Ned. Then in April, Trish's expectations multiplied 100% overnight when she told them that recent tests had confirmed that she was expecting the birth of two babies and not one, as originally thought. The couple would become the parents of twins.

Five months into Trish's pregnancy, Liam wrote and told his new friend from Donegal, Farley, their good news about the expectant twins. Three weeks later, arrangements had been made for Farley to visit them for a long weekend during June. While he said he would book a reservation at a local lodging house near Kilbunny, Liam and Trish insisted that he stay in the spare room in their cottage during his stay.